FIU Doctor Headed to Africa to Fight Ebola

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In this handout from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), a colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of a Ebola virus virion is seen.

A South Florida doctor is on her way to Nigeria to help fight the ongoing outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in western Africa.

Dr. Aileen Marty, who also teaches at FIU’s College of Medicine, left Thursday after she was recruited by the World Health Organization to serve with the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. Dr. Marty has more than 30 years of experience dealing with diseases like leprosy, dengue, malaria, and Ebola.

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has seen 2,127 confirmed cases across the nations of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization. Out of those cases, there have been 1,145 deaths the W.H.O. reported, a mortality rate of 53.8 percent.

However, the W.H.O. said “that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak.”